Ten kidnapped in Mexican state where 43 students were abductedSunday 20th November, 2016: A group of armed men have kidnapped 10 people in the violent southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero, where 43 students were abducted and likely massacred two years ago, authorities said on Saturday.

Suspected members of a gang known as Los Tequileros took the 10, which included two minors, from the municipality of San Jeronimo on Thursday evening, said Roberto Alvarez, a spokesman for a government task force overseeing security in Guerrero. Alvarez said the gang was created by former cohorts of drug cartels the Knights Templar and La Familia, and had been carrying out kidnappings in the state for ransom for several months.

Home to beach resort Acapulco, Guerrero has been mired in violence for years, and suffered more than 1,650 murders in the first nine months of this year, according to official data. The kidnappings are the latest sign of how the government is struggling to beat violent crime in the troubled state after suffering one of its biggest crises over the abduction of the 43 trainee teachers in the city of Iguala in late September 2014.

The government said the 43 were abducted by corrupt police and handed over to another drug gang, who killed the students, believing some of them were working for a rival outfit. However, the official account, which stated the bodies of the 43 were incinerated, ground up and tossed into a river, was sharply criticized by an independent investigation.

To date, only the remains of one of the missing youths has been definitively identified. The disappearance of the 43 and the government's handling of the investigation sparked international condemnation of law and order in Mexico, creating a major headache for President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Cowards!...Mexico defends decision not to release report on 43 missing studentsDec. 16, 2016 -- Mexico's Attorney General's Office defended its decision not to release a report on the investigation into 43 missing students from Iguala.

In response to a New York Times report that the Mexican government refused to release the findings of an internal review, the Attorney General's Office, or PGR, defended its practices -- saying the Inspector General is an "organ" of the PGR that has "full autonomy" but that must adhere to Mexican laws and procedures, such as the verification of reports. "According to the Mexican legal framework, in order for a determination or resolution to become valid within an administrative or criminal proceeding, and thus capable of producing legal effects, it requires that it be issued with all the formalities established by the law, including the signature of the person who pronounced it," the PGR said in a statement. "Any document that may exist and that has been disseminated through unofficial means, in which references are made to the assessments made on files related to the disappearance of students ... until it is properly formalized, it is a simple projection."

The New York Times on Thursday reported that the Mexican government refused to release an internal review that said investigators broke the law in the search of the missing students, citing a copy of the report it obtained from an internal review conducted by the Inspector General. The PGR said the unfinished report's findings are subject to change "as is likely to occur with all kinds of projections in the field of legal procedures." "In the case at hand, the documents referred to by the NYT are characterized as being without proper formalization, lacking the legal requirements that apply to them, are legally nonexistent; therefore, are prevented from being considered with quality of a formal resolution," the PGR added.

​

The Times said the report found crucial suspects were arrested and moved illegally, and that the kidnapping investigators' conduct violated "the right to truth" and damaged the victims' right to justice. In one legal violation, a top investigator took a suspect to identify the supposed crime scene without a defense lawyer present. The findings of the internal review were completed in August and the families of the missing students expected to receive the report. But César Alejandro Chávez Flores, the inspector general, told the families his superiors needed to approve the report first, the Times reported. Chávez Flores, who prepared the internal review, resigned abruptly four weeks after meeting the families. The Times said the report suggests the findings of the internal review are in bureaucratic limbo.

In September 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa traveled to the town of Iguala in Mexico's Guerrero state and clashed with police, who opened fire, investigations revealed. Police then handed the students over to drug gangs. Soldiers were at the scene of the clash and relatives of the missing students believe the soldiers played a role in the disappearances by failing to act. Further investigation into the incident revealed that the police was infiltrated by drug gangs. The three suspects in the case, Patricio Reyes, Jhonatan Osorio and Agustin Garcia, confessed to killing the students and burning the bodies, alleging they were told the students were rival drug gang members. Only one burnt body of the 43 missing student has been identified.

Suspect arrested in missing students case...Mexico missing students: Key suspect arrested13 Mar.`18 - Federal police in Mexico have arrested a man they say is a key suspect in the disappearance of 43 students from the town of Iguala in 2014.

Erick Uriel Sandoval is accused of forming part of the gang that is thought to have killed the trainee teachers and burned their bodies. He was arrested in Cocula, the town near the rubbish dump where remains of one of the missing students were found. The disappearance of the 43 caused outrage in Mexico and abroad. Alfredo Higuera from the prosecutor's office in charge of investigating the case said that Mr Sandoval was accused of having "played a key role in the actions against the students". Local media alleged that he was one of the gang members tasked with shooting dead the students.

Vanished after protesting

The 43 were part of a larger group of students from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa who travelled to the nearby town of Iguala to protest against what they saw as discriminatory hiring practices for teachers. As they were travelling back from Iguala to Ayotzinapa, they were confronted by municipal police, who opened fire on the buses they were travelling in. The officers maintained they did so because the buses had been hijacked, while the surviving students said that the drivers had agreed to give them a lift. The 43 missing students have not been seen since that clash on 26 September 2014.

Relatives of the missing students hold regular protests in Mexico City​

According to the official government report, they were handed over by corrupt police officers to members of local drugs gang Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors). The gang then took them to a local rubbish dump, where they killed them and burned their bodies, the official report continues. However, independent experts have cast doubt on the official report, pointing out that the chain of evidence was broken when the bone fragments were tested. They also said that the government had hampered their investigation.

Key suspect

Mr Sandoval is accused of forming part of the Guerreros Unidos drugs gang and prosecutors say he had "direct contact" with the students following their disappearance. He is one of five suspects for whom prosecutors have offered a reward of 1.5m pesos ($81,000; £58,000). One of the members of Guerreros Unidos already in custody has reportedly named Mr Sandoval as one of the people who were at the rubbish dump the night the students were killed and their bodies burned. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the case but, two and a half years since the students' disappearance, doubts remain as to what happened to them.

Useful Searches

About USMessageBoard.com

USMessageBoard.com was founded in 2003 with the intent of allowing all voices to be heard. With a wildly diverse community from all sides of the political spectrum, USMessageBoard.com continues to build on that tradition. We welcome everyone despite political and/or religious beliefs, and we continue to encourage the right to free speech.

Come on in and join the discussion. Thank you for stopping by USMessageBoard.com!